Welcome to the Subscriber’s Salon!
This private page is reserved exclusively for my email subscribers. Here, you receive an advance look at new paintings before they are exhibited publicly—along with the opportunity to acquire them at 15% below gallery price for a limited time.
The painting below is available to subscribers through April 30, 2026.
Guanyin
1000 Years of Quiet Compassion
Guanyin is an 18 x 24 inch oil painting, presented in a cherrywood frame.
Gallery price: $820
Subscriber price: $700—available through April 30, 2026
The Discovery
It began with Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore. After taking in their exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art, we wandered into the East Asia wing — a part of the museum we'd never really explored. There, among the ancient treasures, stood a captivating statue. Carved from wood, it looked like stone. The label read: Guanyin. Northern China. First half of the 12th century.
It was nearly a thousand years old, in a city not yet two hundred — and it looked completely at peace with the arrangement.
The Subject
Guanyin is the bodhisattva of compassion in Buddhist tradition — an enlightened being who remains in the world to hear the cries of those who suffer. This statue depicts the classic posture of "royal ease": one knee drawn up, the figure resting on a rocky pedestal of Mt. Potala. It's a posture that suggests infinite, serene patience.
What caught my painter's eye wasn't just the sculpture itself, but the way it was lit — dramatic spotlighting against a dark background, exactly the kind of theatrical setup I use in my still life work. I took a photo on the spot, already imagining the future painting.
The Painting
Work began eight months later. In composing the piece, I took some deliberate license with the photograph. Other carved works visible nearby were removed to give the statue its breathing room. And something about the figure's quiet presence suggested it belonged in a forest setting, surrounded by foliage, encountered in a moment of solitude. The plants became part of the composition.
The History Behind the Statue
This Guanyin was once part of the collection of Cora Timken Burnett (1871–1956), daughter of Henry Timken — a German-American inventor whose fortune grew from a single innovation: the tapered roller bearing, patented in 1898. Cora channeled that inheritance into a lifelong passion for art and antiquities from Persia, India, and China, most of which eventually entered the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Cora and her husband, Dr. John C. Burnett, were also known for their extraordinary estate in Alpine, New Jersey — a property designed to merge with the natural landscape, its buildings featuring flared bases said to resemble elephant's feet, and a pool shaped like a coiled serpent.
Left to right: Cora Timken & John Burnett; the Burnett estate in Alpine, NJ; Amelia Timken Bridges.
Her older sister, Amelia Timken Bridges (1855–1940), left an equally enduring mark closer to home. A prominent figure in early 20th-century San Diego society, Amelia funded the construction of the Fine Arts Gallery — now the San Diego Museum of Art — which opened in 1926. For about a decade she personally paid the director's salary and contributed $100,000 annually to its operation. The Timken family's generosity to San Diego continued through the Timken Foundation in Canton, Ohio, which donated major artworks that formed the nucleus of the Timken Museum of Art, opened in Balboa Park in 1965.
When Cora died, she remembered her sister's museum. Her will bequeathed many of her antiquities to San Diego — including this Guanyin.
Where will the statue's journey take it in the centuries to come? I hope my painting finds a place in a home, and that the serene visage it captures brings a sense of peace to whoever keeps it.
If this painting resonates with you, contact me before May 1, 2026 to reserve it at the subscriber price. As always, once you acquire a painting, you receive a permanent 15% discount on future purchases. Please note: For collectors outside San Diego, shipping is additional.